As a conventional vehicle door opening/closing device, a device described in Patent Document 1, for example, has been known. In the door opening/closing device of Patent Document 1, when the drive force produced by a drive unit is transmitted to a latch mechanism, the latch mechanism is switched from a half-latched state to a fully latched state so as to operate the vehicle door to close (closer operation). Specifically, by activating an electric motor in such a manner as to pivot a drive lever in one direction, a drive wire is pulled so as to transmit the drive force of the drive unit to the latch mechanism.
Also, in the door opening/closing device described in Patent Document 1, when the closer operation is performed and manipulation force of a door handle is transmitted to an open lever, the open lever is pivoted through a cancel cable connected to the open lever. This blocks transmission of the power between the electric motor and the drive lever (canceling operation). In this manner, by canceling the closer operation through manipulation of the door handle, the vehicle door opening/closing device prevents the vehicle door, for example, from catching an object.
Another vehicle door opening/closing device, which opens a vehicle door by switching a latch mechanism from a fully latched state to an unlatched state when drive force of a drive unit is transmitted to the latch mechanism (releasing operation), separately from the above-described closer operation, is also known.
If drive unit such as electric motors are provided separately for the closer operation and the releasing operation, the door opening/closing device as a whole enlarges in size and the number of the components increases. This raises the costs necessary for manufacturing the vehicle door opening/closing device. To solve this problem, in the drive unit of Patent Document 1, the applicant of the present application has proposed to drive the electric motor, when the vehicle door is to be opened, in such a manner as to pivot the drive lever in the direction opposite to the direction in which the drive lever is pivoted in the closer operation.
However, if the above-described configuration is employed in a vehicle with a door that is selectively locked and unlocked through manipulation of, for example, a portable device (an electronic key) carried by a user, the following problem occurs. Specifically, when the vehicle door is to be switched to an unlocked state by manipulating the portable device (the electronic key) after the door has been held locked by a locking mechanism, the door handle may be manipulated before the door is switched to the unlocked state. This brings about a “panic state”, thus effectuating the aforementioned canceling operation. That is, the power transmission between the electric motor and the drive lever is blocked and thus the releasing operation cannot be performed. Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-138534